Ellen started off her monologue talking about how she forgot her ID and wasn’t allowed inside the White House. “And so Portia and I are walking with the person that’s handling us, I had a handler, and we’re like midway, almost there and she just turns to me and she goes, “You have your ID, right?” And I was like, ‘No. No I don’t have my ID.’ She’s like, ‘No you…’ and she thought I was kidding. I was like, ‘Why would I need… I’m getting the Medal Medal of Freedom. I didn’t think I needed…’ So, anyway, she’s like, ‘We know who you are we just can’t let you in without ID.’ So I’m sitting on a bench, out in the middle of, by the White House trying to figure out how I was gonna get in. And it was freezing by the way because I thought I was just going from the car into the White House, so I didn’t bring a jacket – it was like 60 degrees you guys. And all the honorees are passing me. Bruce Springsteen and Patty are passing me and they’re like, ‘How do you not bring ID to the White House?’ And I was like, ‘This is my ID, Bruce. This is my ID,’” Ellen said.

“The ceremony was incredible. If you haven’t seen what President Obama said go to our website, it was beautiful. I don’t even know how to express in words how honored I felt getting that from the President of the United States who I love so very much,” Ellen added.

“It’s easy to forget now, when we’ve come so far, where now marriage is equal under the law—just how much courage was required for Ellen to come out on the most public of stages almost 20 years ago. Just how important it was not just to the LGBT community, but for all of us to see somebody so full of kindness and light, somebody we liked so much, somebody who could be our neighbor or our colleague or our sister challenge our own assumptions, remind us that we have more in common than we realize, push our country in the direction of justice,” President Obamasaid.

“What an incredible burden that was to bear. To risk your career like that. People don’t do that very often. And then to have the hopes of millions on your shoulders. But it’s like Ellen says: We all want a tortilla chip that can support the weight of guacamole. Which really makes no sense to me, but I thought would brighten the mood, because I was getting kind of choked up. And she did pay a price—we don’t remember this. I hadn’t remembered it,” President Obama said. “She did, for a pretty long stretch of time—even in Hollywood. And yet, today, every day, in every way, Ellen counters what too often divides us with the countless things that bind us together—inspires us to be better, one joke, one dance at a time.”

The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor available to Americans. 20 additional celebs were honored at the ceremony. Congrats again to Ellen!

“The Church does have all your secrets from when you were a child, but that isn’t the reason why people don’t leave the Church. People don’t leave the Church because they actually believe what they’re doing is good. It’s very hard for me to attack something that I believed in, and I believed in it wholeheartedly my whole life. It’s a difficult position to be in,” Leah explained.

“They claim that they have the technology to get you to the highest enlightenment of that spiritual side of you and to be the best part of you,” Leah continued. “There’s a lot of things that are good in Scientology, because I wouldn’t have been in it. And that’s the thing: A lot of people trivialize it: ‘Oh, it’s Xenu and it’s a volcano and it’s jumping on couches and acting crazy.’ These people are victims. We’ve been victimized. We believed in something because it starts out very normal. I could be a better Leah, I could be a better mother, I could be a better sister, I could be a better friend—not to you, because I’ve been fantastic—but we all want those things. What Scientology offers is a bigger game. You’re part of an elite group saving the planet.”

“But again, my story pales in comparison to what happened to other people, how people are bullied into silence. We don’t have $3 billion to protect ourselves, right? So, what I have is I’m an actress, and I’m able to speak, and I’m able to give a voice to people who might not have an Ellen to go on. For that, I feel lucky and I feel blessed. That’s kind of what my path is right now,” Leah continued.

Be sure to watch Leah‘s A&E docu-series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.

“So let’s talk about, if you want to and if you will, you had a highly publicized relationship and you were engaged and you were trying on wedding dresses in the docu-series, we see the behind the scenes of that, which is pretty personal. And now you’re not together anymore,” Ellen said.

“Now it’s a whole friggen thing,” Mariah answered. “I’m actually….Everything happens for a reason things are the way they are.”

“He didn’t want to be in the docu-series at all. And yet he’s in it. You see him,” Ellen continued.

The talk show host was one of 21 stars who received the medal from President Barack Obama at a ceremony in the East Room on Tuesday (November 22) in Washington, D.C.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest honor that a U.S. civilian can receive and Ellen teared up while being given her medal.

“In a career spanning three decades, Ellen DeGeneres has lifted our spirits and brought joy to our lives as a stand-up comic, actor, and television star. In every role, she reminds us to be kind to one another and to treat people as each of us wants to be treated. At pivotal moments, her courage and candor helped change the minds and hearts of millions of Americans, accelerating our nation’s constant drive toward equality and acceptance for all,” the announcer said while she stood on stage with Obama. “Again and again, Ellen DeGeneres has shown us that a single individual can make the world a more fun, more open, more loving place, so long as we ‘just keep swimming.’”